Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) Shares Up 0.1%

Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE:PSTG)’s stock price traded up 0.1% on Monday . The company traded as high as $54.29 and last traded at $53.50. 568,929 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 4,700,941 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.43.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Pure Storage from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Pure Storage from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.53.

Pure Storage Trading Up 1.9 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market cap of $17.32 billion, a PE ratio of 313.61, a P/E/G ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 1.15. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.92.

Pure Storage (NYSE:PSTG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The technology company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $789.81 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $784.31 million. Pure Storage had a net margin of 2.17% and a return on equity of 12.60%. Pure Storage’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Pure Storage, Inc. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total transaction of $2,012,461.52. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 380,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,389,852.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director Roxanne Taylor sold 36,860 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.76, for a total value of $1,981,593.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,015,150.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ajay Singh sold 37,588 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.54, for a total transaction of $2,012,461.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 380,834 shares in the company, valued at $20,389,852.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 6.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Pure Storage by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 54,073 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,928,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC grew its position in Pure Storage by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 25,839 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $921,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its position in Pure Storage by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 13,300 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $474,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in Pure Storage by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 120,438 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,096,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC grew its position in Pure Storage by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 17,066 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $457,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. 83.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Pure Storage

Pure Storage, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides data storage technologies, products, and services in the United States and internationally. The company's Purity software is shared across its products and provides enterprise-class data services, such as data reduction, data protection, and encryption, as well as storage protocols, including block, file, and object.